12/05/2008 @ 12:01AM

Run, Jeb, Run

In January 2007, when Jeb Bush stepped down after two terms as governor of Florida, he had cut taxes, enacted the most extensive public school reform in any state, restructured health care and, after dealing with some three dozen hurricanes and tropical storms, earned high marks for crisis management. In a state in which Democrats outnumber Republicans, Bush held an approval rating of an astonishing 63%.

Warm, self-deprecating, well-read and articulate, Bush stood in a commanding position to capture the 2008 Republican nomination for president–or would have but for his last name. Conscious that the nation was in no mood to award the White House to a third member of his family, Bush traded the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee for a home in Coral Gables, disappearing, aside from the occasional after-dinner speech, into private life. One of the most compelling figures in the GOP–gone.

Until now.

On Tuesday, Florida Sen. Mel Martinez announced that he would retire in 2010, not run for reelection. The Internet instantly began to hum with speculation that Bush would seek to succeed him. That evening, the former governor confirmed in an e-mail to Politico that he was indeed “considering it.” “Considering” is hardly “campaigning,” but Republicans rejoiced all the same.

Jeb Bush in the Senate. Just imagine it.

The first day he walked into the chamber, Bush would already possess a more impressive record of accomplishment–not talk, accomplishment–than all but a few of his new colleagues. For that matter, his record would compare favorably with those of Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and nearly everyone else in Washington, including President Barack Obama.

Bush would have standing. He would be able to speak with authority. At a time when the Republican Party would almost certainly still find itself on the defensive, he would prove utterly unapologetic.

Could Bush be able to help reunite the disparate elements in the GOP? Yes indeed, as few others could. Conservative by both temperament and conviction, Bush would win over Republican true believers. “We have different brands of conservatism,” he told me in an interview last year, “but limited government is really at the core.”

Yet Bush is intensely practical, a trait that would appeal to the business wing of the party. “Idealism or political ideology,” he said, “needs to be tempered with a need to get stuff done.”

A man of faith–raised an Episcopalian, he became a Roman Catholic about a dozen years ago–Bush would reassure religious conservatives without wearing religion on his sleeve. “Christian faith is not judgmental,” he said. “It’s a faith that accepts other points of view. It’s a faith that accepts that we’re all imperfect under God’s watchful eye.”

Even as he helped reunite Republicans, Bush would enable the GOP to reach outside its base–above all, to Hispanics. Married to a Mexican, he speaks fluent Spanish. Already esteemed among Cubans in Florida, he would be able to make the conservative case to Mexicans, Central Americans and other Hispanics in the rest of the country.

Although determined to gain control of the borders–”that’s a responsibility of the federal government right now”–he insists that legal immigration is good for the nation. Hispanics are “as American in their pursuit of traditional dreams … as any other group.” Writing off Hispanics, he told me, is “wrong” and “stupid.” And in politics, he added, “the combination of being incorrect and stupid is just very dangerous.”

Jeb Bush’s older brother, George W. Bush, will soon return to Texas. John McCain has run his final campaign for the White House. Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson all possess impressive qualities, but the ability to win broad support among ordinary voters is not among them. Attention is now shifting to a new generation of Republicans. In governors’ mansions, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Sarah Palin of Alaska, Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Mitch Daniels of Indiana, John Hoeven of North Dakota. In the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor of Virginia, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Jeb Hensarling of Texas.

And in the Senate?

“Politics,” Jeb Bush said to me, “is a lagging institution, not a leading institution. Right now we need our politics to be more on the leading side of our national life.”